


A Time Lord with Rusty Gallifreyan: Another Impossibility

by DeanWinchesterIsTrans



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Rassilon Hate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 02:25:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11326707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeanWinchesterIsTrans/pseuds/DeanWinchesterIsTrans
Summary: The Doctor is getting rusty at Gallifreyan, and he makes the mistake of asking Missy for help. Oh, sure, she helps him, but not without a bit of making fun of him first.





	A Time Lord with Rusty Gallifreyan: Another Impossibility

Next to the TARDIS console, the Doctor sat cross-legged on the floor, for some godforsaken reason.

Missy was sitting up further away, all tucked up in a chair by herself reading, Nardole was off fussing about somewhere outside of the TARDIS, and Bill was off at work for the time being.

The Doctor sat unmoving for hours, seemingly resolute on finishing his book. He furrowed his eyebrows at a particularly convoluted combination of circles and lines. He looked up at Missy, then back down at the page, then back up at her, contemplating something.

She looked up from her book, catching him doing this. Missy raised her eyebrows and asked, "Well, what is it? What do you want?"

The Doctor started to say something, appeared to think better of it, then started again, "I can't... I'm not sure what this says. It's too," he made a vague waving gesture with his hands, "scribble-y."

Missy closed her book and set it down carefully, leaving a bookmark so she could find her place later. She stood up and climbed down the stairs, sitting down next to him close enough that their shoulders might touch. Missy looked over at the page, brushing a stray piece of her hair out of her eyes.

Missy leaned back and gave the Doctor a strange look, "This is a textbook, dummy. There's nothing scribbled about it, this isn't the scribbling of prophecies or anything even remotely similar." She rolled her eyes. "It's just a book on Rassilon-- hang on, why do you want to read about Rassilon? We both know all there is to know about that disgusting excuse of a life-form: he's old, ugly, and an absolute asshole."

"And the primary founder of Time Lord society," the Doctor defended, as if by second nature.

"Asshole," Missy repeated.

The Doctor smiled slightly. "Yeah, he's a total asshole," he said, agreeing with his friend.

Missy leaned over the book once more, tracing her finger across the page, following the circles in a counter-clockwise manner. She read, "The beloved leader Rassilon created and founded Time Lord culture. In the interest of all the Universe he did so, saving all other sentient races from themselves, as his wisdom was greater then--"

Missy cut off there and made a disgusted noise. "That is absolute bullshit. Ew. Did they mention in any part of this book how big of a douche he was? 'Cause if they didn't, the author was severely misinformed. Disgusting."

She leaned against the Doctor. "Why are you reading this trash, Thete?" she started to ask, then corrected herself, "Why are you reading this, Doctor?"

He sighed and looked away from her, embarrassed and refusing to meet her eyes. "I kinda... needed practice reading circular Gallifreyan. I haven't read it in a while... Haven't spoken Gallifreyan in a while either."

Missy shoved him gently. "I could've helped, idiot." She pulled away, and cautiously reached out telepathically instead, while asking aloud in their first language, "So, what do you remember?"

To humans, Gallifreyan might sound something like snippets of a song, accompanied by flashes of feeling, meaning, and sometimes color over psychic connection, or accompanied with a slight ringing tone or persistent headache if no psychic connection was established. Without telepathic connection, the language sounded like just another human language, just perhaps with an inexplicable headache. But with the connection Gallifreyans naturally have, it had the potential to be so much more.

To Gallifreyans, it was a blurred flash of meaning hanging onto every word, some words stronger than others. Sometimes conversations were more telepathic than vocal. Politics were a headache and a half, sometimes mind-numbingly boring, sometimes hopelessly overwhelming. Etiquette between strangers, teachers, or Elders was considered polite to keep words strictly vocal, almost to the level of telepathy Earth languages contain, which is to say, next to none. Acceptably, friends and immediate family could be closer, more open, but still not too close. Lovers, partners, those as close together as two separate beings ever could be, were the closest to each other, but never publicly. As Time Lords are first and foremost telepathic by touch, physical contact was strictly forbidden in most all circumstances.

The Doctor closed his eyes, content with the safe feeling of connecting telepathically with his friend, reaching over and threading his fingers through hers, leaning against her once more. "Not as much as I should," he replied softly.

Missy squeezed his hand. "You still remember all the swear words, I hope," she said, her words illuminated with yellow-orange amusement and vibrant blue curiosity.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "What are you, twelve years old?" He paused. "However... yes, I do believe I remember all the swear words."

Missy smiled. "Do you remember when I called Ush-- the Rani a...?" here she said something with a deep purple tone and the general impression of a stuck-up brat.

The Doctor broke out into a fit of laughter. "Yes! I do remember! She almost pushed you out that window!"

Missy laughed too. "And she would've too, if you hadn't held her back." She stopped smiling immediately. "I guess that's... several times you've saved my life now," she considered, saying 'life' like it carried the green weight of a sprout, growing into a tree, causing a whole forest on fire, yet still returning back to the small sprout in the end.

She pulled her hand away from his sharply, stood up, and started to walk back up the stairs to her previous position.

"Anyways, I'm sure there's books here somewhere on circular Gallifreyan, I just hope for your sake they aren't in circular Gallifreyan themselves," she laughed hollowly, speaking in plain English, wiping at her eyes as descretely as she could. Damn. This whole 'crying' business really needs to stop.

"Koschei," the Doctor said, freezing Missy in her tracks.

She took in a sharp breath. "Yes?" she answered, absolutely despising how weak her voice sounded in that single syllable.

"Please stay," the Doct-- Theta requested.

Missy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she turned around and walked back down to sit by him again.

"I can't even begin to tell you the irony of that statement, Thete," she told him, nudging his shoulder and settling down by her closest friend once more.

**Author's Note:**

> Proofreading saves lives, remember that kids.


End file.
